Yep, that was my thought too

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on December 28, 2004

USA Today founder Al Neuharth wrote in his Christmas column that the Iraq War is wrong -- unlike World War II. Neuharth is a WWII veteran, but at his advanced age, but it is apparent his memory is going.

Despite unhappy holidays, nearly all of us who served in WWII were proud, determined and properly armed and equipped to help defeat would-be world conquerors Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy and Hirohito in Japan.

Editor and Publisher noted the column and the "large" response it garnered -- about 50/50 on each side of the issue. A couple of the respondents noted Neuharth's characterization of the U.S. troops preparedness -- something which had struck me too.

Henry Yang: “Did he really serve in France, Germany, and Philippines? Where was he when our tanks were ill-equipped to deal with the hedgerows in France after the Normandy landing? Do we need to count the number of unnecessary casualties because we were not properly armed and equipped in World War II? By the way, how could we send soldiers to fight the Battle of the Bulge not properly clothed for the winter? Does he know how many soldiers froze to death?”

Bob Armstrong, Clayton, Calif.: "Tell Al that my Pop served on Guadalcanal, and they sure as hell were not properly equipped. The First Marine Division stormed ashore with World War I rifles and had to eat captured Japanese food for 3 months. War is hell, and every war has shortfalls. The M16 first sent to Vietnam was a joke. When the Iraqi elections are held and they demostrate a willingness to fight for freedom this will all worth it. If we fail it will be an Iraqi failure, not ours."

Compared to WWII, the logistics problems we have in Iraq -- even the fake Humvee armor issue -- are laughable. During the invasion, we had columnists like Paul Krugman bemoaning the fact that U.S. troops only had about 2 liters of water a day -- ignoring the fact that was the figure for bottled water, they had trucks with all the tap water troops could drink.

Sometimes it makes you wonder if some in the media are on the other side, or just incompetent.

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